Accessible, engaging and unique: A review of The Reading Realm iPad app

Accessible, engaging and unique: A review of The Reading Realm iPad app

Thank you very much to the Year 5 and 6 children and teachers at St Peter’s RC Primary School in Plymouth who have been using and reviewing The Reading Realm app!

Year group: Year 5/6

School: St Peter’s RC Primary School, Plymouth

What I like about The Reading Realm app:

Nearly all age ranges are catered for, helping teachers to identify suitable reading extracts to support, as well as extend, their children’s reading ability. There is a wide variety of text extracts, enabling teachers/pupils to be exposed to a generous breadth of child-based literature. Additional texts of interest are sign-posted at the bottom providing the ‘encouraging push’ in the right direction to (hopefully) remove the repetitive return to well-read, and well-loved, books. Each reading extract is explored in a number of ways beyond just ‘reading’ – key spellings are reinforced; comprehension questions are shared to show what has been retained; the importance of GPS in context is highlighted in The Rainbow Realm as well as in The Missing Realm. Mustn’t forget access to a range of literature types – fiction, non-fiction as well as poetry!

To summarise: the reading experience encouraged is immersive, deep, and more than just ‘reading’.

My favourite resource and game:

My favourite resource is The Quiz Realm. Straight away after engaging with the text, you’ve a pre-planned set of questions to gauge the level of understanding through the various reading skill domains (e.g. retrieval). This is also beneficial for homework: for a parent unsure who what style of questions to generate, the app provides a scaffold for what would hopefully be a continued, regular occurrence.

The Reading Realm is a go-to resource to promote a love of accessible reading at someone’s fingertips which highlights and exemplifies all the little intricacies of what reading can offer: an understanding of GPS; a deeper comprehension on vocabulary choice to infer a particular feeling or impression to name a few.

This is what the children say about the app:

“LOVE IT! I really like how you get to read different types of books and answer questions about them.”

“I’ve been able to read a bit of Abi Elphinstone even though I haven’t got her book yet.”

“I like how I can read non-fiction and answers questions using my knowledge.”

“It’s cool how you can do grammar and punctuation through your reading.”

Describe the app in three words: *accessible*, *engaging* and (a) *unique* (reading experience)!